"The Switch Point": How Small Decisions Create Major Life Impacts with JT Wiederholt

Have you ever wondered why you were born in this moment in history, rather than thousands of years ago or centuries in the future? This question is at the heart of my conversation with JT Wiederholt, master coach and entrepreneur who helps business leaders who've become "victims of their own success."

JT shares his remarkable journey from small-town America, moving through 19 different schools as a child while his father worked for the railroad. These early experiences forced him to develop resilience and adaptability—qualities that would later define his approach to coaching entrepreneurs and business teams.

We explore the powerful concept of "switch points," those pivotal moments when small decisions—like a railroad switchman moving tracks just three inches—can send our lives in completely different directions. JT explains how these seemingly minor adjustments can impact not just our lives but generations that follow, challenging listeners to consider their unique position in time and purpose.

The conversation delves into practical wisdom through JT's personal framework of "Be, Act, Live": be the person you're meant to be, act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid, and live the life you want now. This straightforward compass has helped him navigate life's complexities with intention and clarity.

Whether you're feeling stuck, seeking direction, or simply curious about maximizing your impact, this episode offers both inspiration and actionable insights. As JT reminds us, the greatest limitations we face often come from within—and recognizing our unique purpose in this precise moment might be the key to unlocking our fullest potential. What switch points will you activate today?

Learn more about JT and Balance Approach

 Consulting:https://www.balanceapproach.com/welcome

Transcript

Welcome to the Bamboo Lab Podcast

Speaker 1 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Bamboo Lab Podcast with your host, peak Performance Coach, brian Bosley. Are you stuck on the hamster wheel of life, spinning and spinning but not really moving forward? Are you ready to jump off and soar? Are you finally ready to sculpt your life? If so, you've landed in the right place. This podcast is created and broadcast just for you, all of you strivers, thrivers and survivors out there. If you'd like to learn more about Brian and the Bamboo Lab, feel free to reach out to explore your true peak level at wwwbamboolab3.com.

Speaker 2 0:41

Hey everyone, welcome to this week's show. Today we have a great friend of mine, a colleague, JT Wieterholt. Jt, my friend, welcome to the Bamboo Lab Podcast.

Speaker 3 0:53

Well, thank you, I'm glad to be here.

Speaker 2 0:55

It's funny we have never officially met face-to-face, have we?

Speaker 3 1:00

No, we haven't. It's always been on the phone or, I guess, via some form of online tool.

Speaker 2 1:08

Yeah, and I looked on LinkedIn I think it was yesterday and we have 273 mutual connections on LinkedIn.

Speaker 3 1:15

Wow, that's crazy. I our worlds have correlated, I guess.

Speaker 2 1:29

We've crossed paths in so many different ways and, of course, our careers and my former company at Ameriprise and things like that. So anyway, it's just great to have you on. I've been really excited. I know we were trying to get you on last year but we had some challenges, I think it was, uh, technical challenges, or maybe it was scheduling, I forget.

Speaker 3 1:50

But glad to have you on today, brother long time listener first time caller.

Speaker 2 1:53

Is that? Uh, who is that? Which show? Is that?

Speaker 3 1:56

uh, I think it compares back way to the uh 70s with the wkrpRP, if memory serves me correctly.

Speaker 2 2:05

Oh, it was With Les Nesman. There are turkeys falling out of the sky.

Speaker 3 2:10

Yeah, there you go.

JT's Journey: From Small Town to Success

Speaker 2 2:12

I wonder how many people will get that reference. Oh, probably fewer than we wish. Yeah, I think so. Well, hey, jt, I've gotten to know you, obviously over the past couple of years. Can you please share with the audience a little bit about yourself?

Speaker 3 2:31

childhood family. Who or what inspired you? Just give us a good nickel version of who you are for the audience. Yeah, for sure I'll keep it short. First off, I don't like to talk about myself. I like to talk about ideas and other people, but I'll do my best here. So I guess I am a product of small town america and I've had the good fortune of just amazingly caring and kind people along the way.

Speaker 3 2:51

Um, we grew up in, uh, you know, I guess I would call them um, uh, very limited circumstances. My parents, uh, never went to college, you know, uh, they had me when my mom was 18, my dad was 17, so they started life really, really young. My dad was a crane operator for the railroad and my childhood was very dynamic. I, actually, I went to 19 schools growing up, um, um, yeah, uh.

Speaker 3 3:24

So there were times where I, especially in the elementary years, it was a lot of traveling, you know, moving from place to place. I might spend three months in one school and then, you know, six or nine months to the next, and it forced me to either to be comfortable in my own skin or roll up into the fetal position and stay in the corner, and I chose the former, not the latter. The latter, um first one to graduate college. In my family I've been married 28 years, we have five kiddos. We travel a ton. Uh, the entrepreneur inside of me has just loved the last 10 years of my my career and what we do here with our consulting business. Um, I'm pretty boring outside of work, so no real passions or hobbies other than reading and people watching and travel.

Speaker 2 4:10

Well, you hit two things that I hear so many so often from successful individuals on the podcast from a small town and like to read. Those are two common. It's crazy, jt, I did not expect. So many people I talk with are from small towns and they always say that I bet it's 80% of the people I have on the show are from small towns. I think there's something about that, and we've talked about this on the show before. There's something about growing up where there's a tight-knit community. You've had a lot of tight-knit communities though. You've been in 19 schools. I've never heard of that. That's like a military kid.

Speaker 3 4:50

Yeah, that's usually the most common follow-up question is you know what branch of military was your dad in? Now, he did serve in the Air Force for a short stint, but no, it was railroad for us.

Speaker 2 4:59

So cool. But yeah, that is interesting that the some the small town connections um, I've had like four people from my actual small town. I graduated in a town of I think it was around 3 000 when I graduated. I think it's probably close to 2 500 now, um, but I've had, I think, four, maybe even five people. I know four for sure. Um, it's amazing how much those little small towns breed successful people. They just do so. Growing up, 19 schools, a railroad brat you loved to read. What was it? Was there a person or an event or a book or anything that inspired you growing up?

Speaker 3 5:41

I guess for me there was no incredible mentor or someone famous. I just had really great members of my family. My grandparents, in particular really had a significant impact on me. Father, who recently passed. He was an entrepreneur, he was a father and you know he was a father to my mother and as a stepfather, you know that's uh not having experienced it, uh, but you know that that particular role that's a tricky, tricky business and he just took on my mother as if she was his own and just loved her to the nth degree and, um, you know, I'd learned so much from him from a business standpoint and mindset. And then you know his wife, my grandmother. She was one you know, uh, from the godfathers she would go to the mattresses, uh, for anybody in her family and you just did not want to mess with her when it came to her family. Um, a quick story here. She know, after graduation I had a good friend of mine.

Speaker 3 6:49

We had a contractor role. We actually worked for a contractor that was contracted with the um national forest service and, uh, we were um out in the forest day in and day out, uh through the summer months, um, killing gophers. Now for your listeners, don't picture a guy running around the forest with a gun. That was actually pretty simple. What was happening is the gophers would create these trails, and then deer cows, all those animals. They'd step in the trail, they'd bust their leg and then you had a big animal that went down. So our job was to find the trail in some poison oats, cover it up and then, uh, that was it. That's what I did the entire summer.

Speaker 3 7:32

Well, this contractor didn't pay my friend and I for all the hours we worked. So my friend and I, we both went um and served as missionaries. So for two years I was down in the amazon in brazil, but, wouldn't know it, my grandma would not let go of these unpaid hours. So you got the DOL, the state, everybody involved, and when my friend and I got back, wouldn't you know it, we both had money in our accounts. So she was just a woman that had fought through the chauvinistic 50s and 60s and just was such an incredible influence in my life, and then obviously, my mother, et cetera, but those are the people that I think of that had the greatest impact on me.

Speaker 2 8:12

And I think that's again that's true for so many successful people is their parents or grandparents or at least a family member. Usually is not some stranger or some official mentor or boss. It's almost always our roots are established with our immediate family. I know for me, jt, I know we've never really talked about this. My mother was it for me and somebody asked me one time I think it was Dave Dick, because Dave Dick interviewed me on the podcast. Oh, yeah, yeah, I think twice he actually interviewed me on my own show and he asked me what was it about my mom?

Speaker 2 8:43

And she's never said these words to me, but it was all in this message that comes to me almost weekly. Life is tough, you have to be tougher, and that's just. She never said those words, but she modeled those words and she still does. My mom, my mom had an epidural yesterday, so she can, she's good. My mom will be 90. She's probably going to kill me for saying that online. She had an epidural yesterday just for her sciatic nerve so she can start walking more again and exercising again. So she's having a problem with her nerve the last couple of years. So she just goes, man. She still works.

Speaker 2 9:14

My mom still works in the summer and in the wintertime when the gift shop she works at is closed down because it's a tourist town. She volunteers her time at a place called the Hope Chest in St Ignace, michigan, where people go there and you know it's like a local goodwill kind of. It's called the Hope Chest. So she and her best friend, opal, who lives next door, who is the same age, they walk every day. Opal comes up on her walker up the street and they walk her on the block, at least once, sometimes twice. Yeah, still going strong. I love it. So can you? We didn't even I haven't even told anybody yet what you do, because I'm kind of getting away from reading these long bios of people. But tell us a little bit about what you're doing now, because you've got a lot of plates in the air.

Speaker 3 9:58

Yeah, so my professional world. I live in two places. One is I'm a minority owner of a wealth management firm, so we have 50 people on the team, several locations. The firm manages over 2 billion in assets, so I have a fractional leadership capacity there and a managing partner. But the majority of my time is actually spent in the coaching world, which obviously you are super familiar with. So we do business coaching and consulting. We focus a lot on financial services, but we have some other avenues that we work in and we really focus on how do we help an owner that has become a victim of their own success? I guess is the way I would describe it. The business has really begun to run them. The freedom and flexibility that they envision as an entrepreneur isn't there because of the commitments they've made to employees and staff and clients and customers. So we really try to help entrepreneurs to get unstuck from that world and we've been doing that for about 10 years now and it's just been really, really gratifying.

Speaker 2 11:13

Well, it's interesting because we have shared clients in the past and worked with some of the same firms and teams, obviously in different capacities. You are, I think what I remember you and I spoke I believe it was maybe it was March of this year, I'm not, maybe it was even further than that, a month or so ago anyway and you talked about how you you guys are really good at teaching the how in things you know, and I think that's really cool. I think you made it. You gave me a quote I think it was a Peter Drucker quote execution eats strategy for breakfast. I have not forgotten that and I wrote it down in my notes when we were talking that day.

Speaker 2 11:50

But I still think about that quite a bit because a lot of times I heard I was listening today to Jim Rowan. Jim Rowan, was it? I don't know, I get on. You know I'm like, yeah, I got addicted to YouTube to the point where I had to get it off, pick it off my phone two weeks ago. So now it's on my computer and my iPad. So, and now you know it's all algorithms, it was all political crap or it was those first amendment auditors that go around and take videos of people in public and getting harassed by the police. For some reason I was getting addicted to that stuff and it was just I. Would you know I have a break and I get on my phone.

Speaker 2 12:23

Anyway, the last few days I've been listening to a lot of philosophical stuff. I listened to a Nietzsche YouTube show yesterday and today. It was Jim Rohn and he was talking today about overcoming laziness and he said there are seven things to do every morning. And first one get up when your alarm gets off. Get up early and don't hit the snooze button, which is an obvious one. Right away. Hydrate, drink, you know, 12 to 30 ounces of water every single morning. Right away. Move your body for 15 minutes. Read, visualize your day, plan your day and show gratitude for five. Three to five things, like write down three to five things you're grateful for, and I'm thinking that's execution, right there. That's when he was talking that today I was actually in the shower to have this show on. I was taking a shower and I was thinking that's what Peter Drucker meant when he says execution eats strategy for breakfast. Yeah, that's execution each strategy for breakfast.

Speaker 3 13:25

Yeah, that's really good. You know the atomic habits, seven habits of highly effective people. I mean, this stuff has been preached to us in different formats and shapes for so long, but those that actually take the steps to implement, those are the ones that I think really unlock the power of it. So I love those four or five that you mentioned from from Jim Rome, and I was checking those boxes off there's. There was one or two that I was like, yeah, I could probably do better, but to your point, those are the things that lead to success.

Speaker 2 13:57

Yeah, I. The one I don't do is I don't prep my day. So I I wrote those down in my journal after I listened to his show today or the episode, and I was like, okay, that's something I can do better, Cause I do the get up and drink my water right away and then I do planks or some type of think, physical activity, that you know the other stuff I'm doing. I didn't know that. I guess I probably heard that somewhere, but I don't prep my day very well and that's something I'm going to add to the arsenal a little bit. Um, I know when we talked, I know you've, you've, you've worn a lot of hats in your career, Um, but you really have a passion for coaching and I remember you telling me that. Why do you have that passion? Where did that come from?

Speaker 3 14:36

You know it's interesting.

Speaker 3 14:37

Uh, having listened to some of your podcasts, I think you you identify with this.

Speaker 3 14:42

Um, you know, early in my career, um, I was tapped on the shoulder to help with some leadership components and you know, no real compensation or anything, just something, hey, would you help us out?

Family Influences and Finding Direction

Speaker 3 14:54

And you know, it became something I really enjoyed and I always got more out of helping someone else unlock something for themselves or, you know, helping them win a sale or, um, you know, achieve something they hadn't, more so than my own individual efforts. And um, that is just, I don't know, maybe it's a DNA or a family trait, but to me that's where the real enjoyment for me is. So, you know, the coaching world really fits well with, kind of my makeup and that desire or interest to see others win. Again, I told you I don't like to talk about myself and I'd much rather focus on other people and what their story is, and that that's what gets me up and going. I'm an introvert kind of by nature, so my days when I am coaching, while it does take energy from me, I look back and I'm very satisfied, having had conversations where I'm able to help people to get what they want.

Speaker 2 16:01

One of the things I've noticed about you is you kind of live by this motto of be more interested in others than trying to be interesting to others. And even when you and I have talked over the phone you do a lot, you walk away. Here's what I guess I could say. When I teach leadership to my clients, the first thing I tell them day one is you have one role as a leader and that is to increase the sense of self-worth of the other people around you.

Speaker 2 16:30

And that can mean a lot of things. That can mean motivating them, inspiring them. It can mean challenging them, supporting them, celebrating with them. It can mean taking them behind the proverbial woodshed and giving a lashing, if you need to, to make sure that you let them know you believe in them. You really kind of do have that vibe, at least when you and I have talked, where I walk away feeling that my sense of self-worth has increased and escalated a little bit. So that's a rare trait, you know, when somebody gives more than they take in a conversation. So kudos to you on that one. Appreciate it, appreciate the compliment. Well, you're not going to talk about yourself, so somebody's got to do it.

Speaker 2 17:03

It's got to be me, you're super kind of you I show man, I can say whatever the hell. I want to say One of the things you said to me when we were talking about how balance approach works. When you go into a place, kind of day one you guys, I think you said you fix the low-hanging fruit first and then you go broader and deeper from there. Can you tell me why? Picture me in the audience. I'm a man or woman in the audience and I'm thinking about how I can change my life and make some improvements. Why do you think for a person not just a team, but for a person it's important to fix the easy things right away, the things that are obvious? What does that give me? To fix those easy things first?

Speaker 3 17:47

Yeah, I think I guess I'll start with.

Speaker 3 17:51

This is a quote that I constantly bring up.

Speaker 3 17:54

Henry David Thoreau once said that for every thousand hacking at the leaves, there's one hacking at the root, and what I believe he meant by that was that for all the people that are, you know, focused on symptoms or ancillary elements, there's usually one that's really getting to the heart of the matter.

Speaker 3 18:18

If you will, and as I think about, you know the coaching that our team provides in a service industry, it's very hard to articulate the value you can provide, because you're talking about concepts and you're talking about ideas. There's not a physical product that you can show and people can touch and say, oh okay, I understand what it does. So for us, from a practical standpoint, if we can help somebody solve an issue they've been dealing with right away to your point that's low-h, is minor, it's just the pebble in the shoe then I have a responsibility, a necessity, to fix that now, and then we can focus on the other bigger issues and items and tackle those as time goes on, instead of focusing on values et cetera. We say what hurts now and we fix it, and then we back into what, the broader strokes of the paint that's on the canvas that we can start to impact.

Speaker 2 19:29

You have a lot of good quotes. The pebble in the shoe I love that. You know, that's one of the things that. So if I'm in the audience right now and I'm thinking, okay, my life is kind of I'm not where I want to be, I'm kind of stuck on the hamster wheel, or maybe I'm facing some even deeper issues, I think the advice is do something right now. That's simple, and we just mentioned a few moments ago seven things that you can do in the morning. Pick one of those, somebody.

Speaker 2 19:54

If you're out there in the audience and you feel like you're just kind of trapped and you're not going somewhere and you just feel isolated, you feel depressed, you feel lonely, you feel unachievable, you've unachieved in life, whatever it might be, do one thing tomorrow morning. Get up when your alarm goes off, do that. Or get up and read for three minutes, you know. Get up and do jumping jacks for 30 seconds. Just do something. You know, change your paradigm a little bit, change your pattern, and do one thing tomorrow. You know that's a low hanging fruit, that's the pebble in the shoe. And do one thing tomorrow. You know, that's a low-hanging fruit, that's the pebble in the shoe.

Speaker 2 20:26

Well said, I love that Well said. So when you look at and I want to talk a little bit more about Balance Approach in a minute, because it really fascinates me what you guys do and I hear nothing but great things about you guys. Everywhere I go I have never heard anything but positive things about JT and Balance Approach and, by the way, I got your packet in the mail on, I think, last Saturday, awesome. So thank you, that's some good stuff, man you made me. I opened it right away.

Speaker 2 20:52

I was walking out, we were going for a hike, so I opened the door. There's a package there. So I'm like what is it? I didn't order anything. I opened up and I'm thinking, man, I got to do something like that. You guys made me feel so unprofessional by your professionalism. I don't have any marketing, cool stuff like that, but maybe I can figure out who did it for you guys and I can contact them because that's good stuff. But anyway, I don't know where I was going with that. But what would you say is one of your biggest learnings you've had in the last couple of years?

Speaker 3 21:25

Is one of your biggest learnings you've had in the last couple of years. Well, I am a student of the industry that we're in, but a student of life. I love observing people. I'm fascinated by you. Know, if I'm reading a book, it's always nonfiction. I just I really like the real and the raw and, uh, frankly, kudos to you.

Speaker 3 21:50

You did a podcast last year that actually awakened something in me and I'd love to spend some time on it if you're okay with that. You, um, you pose the question so if, if, if memory serves me, you you called it embracing raw purpose or something like that, and in that talk you posed the question why are you here? And I really kind of took that to heart of you talked about all kinds of really interesting things. You referenced the Wright Brothers with First in Flight, jfk and the Space Race, all these incredible feats of mankind and the adversity and perseverance, the juxtaposition of those two and how people went from one place to another. So for me, that podcast helped me to really unlock some things that I've been thinking about even over these last 12 months, that I've been thinking about even over these last 12 months. So if you can beckon back to that podcast. That, to me, was some really interesting stuff.

Speaker 3 22:54

There's a question that I came to after listening to that podcast and the question that you asked is why are you here? The question that it took me to is why are you now? All the things that you referenced? We all ask that question of why are you here? And our world is framed in two ways one is space and one is time, and you referenced out the space of why are you here to me thinking about time, and why are you now? You know there's been I think they've estimated there's a hundred billion people that have been born in the history of the planet thus far. And If you ponder, why were you born now? Why not in 4000 BC or 1800 AD? Why were you born now? That to me is a very intriguing question to ponder and pursue. You know you mentioned this generational chain of the blood that courses through our veins. There's just so many visceral things that you referenced. You know the I'll stop in a minute here, but I get a couple of other thoughts.

Speaker 3 24:13

So, um, going back to my family's experience in the railroad, there was a? Um, a gentleman I respect tremendously. His name is gordon hinkley. He's no longer with us. But he did a talk and talked about, um, you know, being a railroad person himself, he talked about the, the switchmen.

Speaker 3 24:33

So back in the day you had railroads and, uh, this is all um electric now, this is all automated. But you had switch points along the way where, if you had a somebody with, uh, you know, picture those gloves there's this handle and they're waiting for the train to come, and then they pulled the lever and that lever moved the rails just two or three inches. That steel is moved three inches and it takes a payload that's headed one direction, it takes it 1500 miles in another direction. And I think about that switch point that each of us has and the question we should be asking is why am I here now? And I think about the generations of my family, what is my role today to you know, for all intents and purposes move the rails three inches, which feels for us minuscule, but the ramifications generationally could be life-changing for that extended bloodline that goes beyond us. So again, not to flatter you, if you will, but I got to tell you, brian, that particular podcast really meant a lot to me and led me to that question.

Speaker 2 25:54

I really appreciate that you had mentioned that via text this morning that you wanted to reference that episode. I forgot I had done that episode. So anybody who wants to go back, that was season three, episode 119. It is called Embracing Raw Purpose actually. Oh, perfect, I appreciate that. I'll have to go back and listen to that.

Speaker 2 26:07

I told you before I never listen to my podcast, which is odd. That's why I don't edit. I don't edit anything. And people ask me why don't you listen to it? I said because I already heard it. I heard what this. I took a ton of notes. Now, back in the day, I used to listen to them two or three times and critique it. There's no value to that. But there are times when I'm driving and I'll just say, hey, I want to listen to, I want to go back and listen to one that I you know that I did a year ago and I'll put it down while I'm driving. But I'll go back, I will listen to this one, because maybe I need to hear what I said. Maybe I was actually preaching to my future self at the time.

Speaker 3 26:42

You were extremely coherent for those few minutes, my friend. It was excellent.

Speaker 2 26:46

Well, I'm good for about 35 minutes on them. When I do those solo shows with that kind of monologues, I'm good for about 35 minutes and then I'm kind of like, okay, that's all I got to say. But it's funny, those monologue podcasts, jt, they never do as well as when I interview a guest. And that was really how I started off this show with Dave Dixon, who pushed me to do a podcast almost well three and a half years ago, and I just we just kind of planned it that I was just going to go on there and do coaching, maybe once a month and give some tips and techniques and strategies and ideas. And as soon as I got my first guest on, the numbers just started going up and it was just that's what people like. But I do get requests quite often. Hey, can you throw another one in there? So maybe every three months or so I don't even know what it is I'll do, you know, I'll, I'll do a monologue and they're fun to do. But I'm actually you know, what I'm getting into right now JT is I'm getting into TikTok. I've never done TikTok in my life. I've never, I guess I had a TikTok account. I didn't even know I had it because I went.

Speaker 2 27:47

So a friend of mine I'll shout out to Milford Spice Company Laura and Mark were telling me you got to do this. You're going to reach so many people just doing a five minute educational, cool video once a day, once a week, and I was reluctant about it. And finally, one of my commitments this week I have a thing going with my client, one of my clients and a good friend of mine. This week is every day we're doing one thing to improve our craft, and so I text him every morning here's what I'm doing today, and then I give him an update on what I did yesterday. And then he does the same thing here's what I commit to doing today, and he gives me an update on yesterday. And for like two or three days was explore tiktok, and so I think, I think my expectation next week is to shoot my first video and put it out there and just see what, how it does. But I'm not good with technology, but anyway I'm gonna be a tiktok brat now.

The Balance Approach: Coaching for Growth

Speaker 2 28:38

So I can't wait to see it yeah, it's not gonna be me dancing or or singing any songs. I might not even show my face. I might just do a voiceover to something. I don't know. I'm still exploring that. Anyway, but that's really good.

Speaker 2 28:53

I love when you pose the question or the idea of that. Can you explain what are they called in the railroad? Again, the little adjuster, switch points, switch points? Yeah, I love that. Yep, and when you were talking I was thinking, because I'm always thinking you know how can I better myself for my family?

Speaker 2 29:13

You know, my kids, my grandkids, my mother, my clients and my friends that's kind of my circle. But you posed it to me and maybe I posed it back then. I don't remember that every decision I make right now, all of us, every decision, everything we change or choose not to change, has an impact for generations to come. It's like the butterfly effect and it's so fascinating the way you said that and I hope that was mine originally back in episode 119. But if not, I'm going to give you credit for that one. If I said it, I don't remember it. So you're the only one that really made me think of that, cause I've never really truly contemplated that, that that prospect of everything I do right now is impacting people who aren't even born yet. That's really wild.

Speaker 3 30:03

It really is, and I think you had referenced the, the opposite direction you're talking about, about you know this day and age, this location, your circumstances, what are the reasons you were chosen to be here versus your great-great-grandfather or, you know, aunt or uncle? And when you understand the now and the equation, it brings a depth of understanding. It brings a commitment. That commitment brings focus. That focus brings more purposeful execution and then you really start to recognize what is the achievement of why you're here and why are you now.

Speaker 2 31:05

I've got three grandchildren, I've got more coming this year. That puts everything into a completely different perspective and it's so crazy how you know, I'm 58, you, but I'm working out of a new space today. So everybody, if you hear any echoes, this is a new space where there's nothing really. I do have some soundproofing things up right now, but there might be some echoes, might have even sketchy service. The dog might bark because he likes to come in here and look out the window.

Speaker 2 31:46

But I want to install a fake security camera, even if I just put it on the, on the on the mantle of the fireplace next to me here. Um to as a reminder that I'm constantly being watched. Not, I don't want a real one that's plugged in and I was telling a client this yesterday um, to have it as a reminder that my loved ones, my kids, my grandkids, my mother, my friends, my and now that you're the way you said this my future generations, you know, down the road, they're all watching me figuratively and am I performing at my level? That would make them feel that I'm respecting myself and them. Am I honoring them? Am I honoring myself? So that's one thing I want to do.

Speaker 2 32:25

I'm going to find just probably on a junction, at a cell or maybe a garage sale, I'll find a fake video camera or a security camera and just set it up there. It's just a constant reminder. That's a great idea, that's powerful man. This question here, jt, is one that the audience tends to really like. That is what is one of the most difficult things you have ever gone through in your life. How did you overcome it and scale that wall of difficulty?

Speaker 3 32:56

That is a very good. That's a tough question, I guess. Frankly, having heard and listened to a lot of your past guests, even your personal story, honestly I've got nothing to complain about. I mean, the scale of difficulty that I've likely gone through is nowhere near what you know, the hundreds thousands, billions of other, you know, passengers on this planet have gone through. For me, it may be maybe to set this up at more of themes versus a particular event. I'll share a quick story that I think demonstrates some of the armed experience that I've had and then maybe talk about some of the themes.

Speaker 3 33:41

But you know I referenced my parents. My parents were really really young when they had me and didn't have a lot of direction. Parents were really really young when they had me and didn't have a lot of direction. My dad came from a broken home and some severe abuse and elements that he experienced, and the man that he is today, I mean it's just absolutely incredible what he's overcome and if you met him you would just think of just one of the nicest human beings you've ever met. You would never know what he's gone through.

Speaker 3 34:10

And for me, when I was very, very young, so still in diapers, I'll paint the picture for you of a small rundown house and in this house, thick shag carpets. So we're talking about late 70s, early 80s and massive speakers, loud music, sabbath or something like that, and um smoke-filled room. And it's not from cigarettes, it's probably from something else, along with, uh, other types of uh, fun types of drugs that were there. And my little body my mom described this for me my little body, uh, just kind of reverberating to the beat of, of whatever music's playing. As my mom walked around the corner to come back into the room from doing something, she says that she heard a distinct voice. She doesn't know where it came from, but the the phraseology that she heard was King is not to be raised this way. And she heard that voice as if someone was literally physically there, and that was a switch point for my mom. She cleaned things up.

Speaker 3 35:25

My experience changed exponentially for the better. My experience changed exponentially for the better and I think about the theme of that and the progression that I've made personally because of that voice, my mom's choice to act on that voice and how that's perpetuated my experience of forever be grateful, as I think about experiences I've had. You know, we grew up on very low on the socioeconomic status ladder, if you will. Um, I spent two years in the Amazon, away from my family, learning a new language.

Speaker 3 36:10

The first three months were excruciating, um, you know, as I went through and learned Portuguese and totally different culture, environment. I lost a job for nine months and we couldn't find anything to save our souls. I lost my mom almost 20 years ago and that was difficult when she was she's literally, she was the age I am now when she passed and I really think about that quite often. So of course, I've experienced difficult things, like everyone else has, but they're more themes rather than particular events. But I think all of those pieces, whether they break us or they build us, they're they're part of our story and to me, you know, I I want those difficult pieces to be part of my story. I wouldn't want the easy street because they've made me just such a better man.

Speaker 2 36:51

Yeah, that's really well put. It's so interesting that you say that, because I actually just did a show. I don't even know if I heard it yet. I think I did on on just that right there. As far as the stuff that we've gone through, and I know I think I did a talk, I think we, you and I, did work together last year, virtually talking about grit or purpose. Yes, yes, I just did one.

Speaker 2 37:19

Two weeks ago I was supposed to drive to Lansing, michigan, to speak to a group of HR professionals and I was in Wisconsin, central Wisconsin. I was this particular Wednesday morning. I was going to leave, so I had to speak at noon on Thursday and a friend of mine from Grand Rapids, michigan, which is right in my direct route to get there I have to go through Milwaukee, chicago, grand Rapids, then Lansing they texted me and said hey, you might want to reconsider driving tomorrow because we're getting some bad storms. So I looked at Milwaukee, Chicago, grand Rapids and Lansing all had the same weather pattern. Anyway, it was don't drive. So I called them, got ahold of them and they said well, you know what? We don't want you to do that either. We'll pipe you in over on the big screen. So I did that, and that was the central message was we don't find our.

Speaker 2 38:02

We always talk about having a purpose in life and that our purpose can get us through difficult things. I believe fully that it's during those difficult things where our purpose is actually forged. It's where we develop our purpose during the difficult times we face, whether it's a loss of a loved one, a financial scare, a health scare, divorce, depression, anxiety, whatever it might be. And I love when I hear somebody like you say I wouldn't want those to go away because you would be a completely different man. And I read this quote, jt. I want to find it, but I don't know who wrote it. It said something to the effect of blessed are those I'm just going to say what I think it said Blessed are those who have fought hard times because now they're the masters of their own world, or something like that. You know those people who haven't gone through any struggles in life. You've seen them, you know they. Just they buckle under pressure. Or the people who constantly complain about the difficult times they've gone through they buckle under pressure. I think it is. It's made for people who've gone through some shit and they've been able to come out of it stronger Because, call it what it is, whenever you go through anything in life, it either makes you stronger or weaker. You never come out of something the same. It's like going through a car wash life is, and you never come out the same. So you're going to come out cleaner or dirtier. It's one of the two, so I think that's pretty powerful.

Speaker 2 39:21

I love when I hear stories about I heard a voice or just something. I, I heard a voice or just something. I'm going to tell you something that happened to me and I pulled my journal out as you were talking. So this was what's today's the 17th, so I wrote this on the 15th. So this happened about 2.30 in the morning on the 15th. So two, three days ago I woke up. I've never had a panic attack. I've never had an anxiety attack. When people tell me they've had them, I don't get it, I don't relate to it.

Speaker 2 39:48

At 2.15 on Monday night, monday morning, tuesday morning, I woke up as close to what I would think would be a panic attack or an anxiety attack Nothing physical, just as deep, fraught and worried. I'm like what the hell is wrong with me, and I laid in bed for about 45 minutes and I kind of said to God or to the universe I'm like you just need to take this, this is yours, you take this. And I didn't hear a voice. But a thought came to me right away and it said these are the words, because I got up at five o'clock and wrote it down. It said stop picking.

Speaker 2 40:27

This is funny because we just talked about o'clock and wrote it down. It said stop picking. This is funny because we just talked about stop picking the low hanging fruit. It's time to go to a higher ground. And I got. I wanted to get up and write it down, but I was like just falling back to sleep and I didn't want to. So I woke up and I went right out to my journal and wrote it down right away. So it wasn't a voice. I didn't hear a physical voice, but I definitely something was put in my head at that time. I don't know where it came from, or was it the muse, was it God? Was it the universe? I don't know. But anyway, I believe in that. I really do.

Speaker 3 40:59

It's interesting you say that I think you know. Whatever you believe or don't believe, I do think that the past generations do have some form of influence uh in our world, and I don't know how, um, but I I do believe that to your point earlier, we're we're being watched um and helped, frankly, uh, in some way, shape or form. So it's really powerful that connection you made.

Speaker 2 41:26

Yeah we are being watched. There's no doubt about that. What would you say? Jt is right now at your stage in life. You've got your wife kim, you've got your children, you've got your, your career going really well. The the practice balance approach is growing and doing great things. What do you consider to be a win for you in life?

Speaker 3 41:47

Wow, of course I'm passionate about our business and love it when we bring in a new client and help them on board and see success and all those things. But for me the win at now that I'm in my 50s is the legacy. It's my children. Every time I see them overcome, I win. So you know I can achieve accolades and great feats professionally but you know, my greatest accomplishment to me is really going to be who my children become and how my wife and I have shown them the way to be what they're capable of being. And, um, that for those that may be in a different stage in their life or maybe children aren't part of your world, I get it. You might hear that and kind of roll your eyes, but that really is the feeling at this particular stage for me and Brian. You've got grandkids and I can't even imagine everybody that I talk to that's got grandchildren. There's even a greater, deeper passion. So for me the win is in the children.

Speaker 2 42:53

You are 100% and actually it's funny because before we started talking today, I pulled up your Facebook and I have the picture of you and your family. I don't know where you are. It's your profile background picture, whatever that's called.

Speaker 3 43:06

Oh, yeah when were you there? Yeah, we, that's called Um. Where were you there? Yeah, we were a red square. This was, uh, back in the day when, um, we were comfortable as Americans, headed over to Russia. But, um, yeah, we, that was one of our trips. We, um, we traveled pretty extensively. Um, we've gone to six continents and over 60 countries. Now me and my wife and the kiddos are on a on a tear there as well, but, um, yeah, we try to travel as a family as often as we can.

Speaker 2 43:36

You have a beautiful family. My friend, you really do.

Speaker 3 43:39

Thank you.

Speaker 2 43:39

This is four and a half years ago. It was September of 22. How tall are you? You look tall as hell.

The Power of Switch Points in Life

Speaker 3 43:48

How tall are you? You look tall as hell. Well, back when I had great hair and good posture, I was 6'5". I don't know how tall I am anymore, but I am on the taller side and I don't know where I got it. My dad is just shy of 6 feet. My mom was 5'7", so I don't know where I came from.

Speaker 2 44:05

Well, how tall is your son, your oldest son there?

Speaker 3 44:08

Yeah, he's right at the six foot mark and he wants to push that higher. We'll see. He's 20. So he still has some opportunity hopefully.

Speaker 2 44:17

Yeah, for sure. It's funny because I got a picture of you and I put together the picture that will be on the podcast. As far as the episode and I looked at it I'm like those are two beautiful bald men right there. We look sexy. We look sexy as hell man you gotta rock it you gotta rock it. When did you, when did you decide to just go all in and just not have any hair at all?

Speaker 3 44:42

well, I, I give the uh. I tip my hat to my dad and my brother-in-law, asherher. Both of them had gone down that path and I was just hanging onto those strands, kind of like Homer Simpson, and it was probably six or seven years ago, if I recall correctly that I said well, it's time. And here we are.

Speaker 2 45:04

Do you know a guy named Tom Smith with Ameriprise?

Speaker 3 45:07

Oh, I do know him, yeah, he's got like. Do know him. Yeah, he's got like incredible hair.

Speaker 2 45:11

He's got great hair. I think. I don't know if this is true, I'm going to have to reach out to him again. I think he was on the TV show Moonlighting with Bruce Willis and no way, I think. Okay, and I don't know if this is true.

Speaker 2 45:23

And Tom, if I said something wrong I apologize, but Tom and I were advisors and then went into management in Detroit, back in, you know, 30-some years ago, and I didn't really know Tom that well, but I remember hearing that. So I don't know if that's true or not, but good-looking guy, but anyway I was doing some work, I think, for his team. This was gosh. Well, it was after Dawson was born, dawson's 22, so maybe 18 years ago, and I was over in Detroit and I had my suit on, I did a speech or some presentation or some training or coaching for his team, and then he and I went out to lunch. He said to me Tom's pretty straightforward, I had this long hair, curly hair.

Speaker 2 46:05

And he goes what's up with your hair, dude? I mean, what do you mean? He goes you look like Frazier Crane, curly hair. And he goes what's up with your hair, dude? I mean, what do you mean? He goes, you look like Frazier Crane. I'm like what he goes, dude. You're thin on top and you've got long hair on the sides. I'm like son of a bitch. I literally went home and within a couple of days I shaved it all off and I haven't looked back.

Speaker 1 46:23

When somebody calls you Frazier Crane man.

Speaker 2 46:25

And here I think I look great. You know, nobody's going to notice and they're all sitting down in the audience. I'm standing up. They're not going to see the top of my head, but they noticed.

Speaker 3 46:34

Well, that's a good friend. If he's willing to share that with you, that's good.

Speaker 2 46:37

I'm going to have to reach out to him and tell him that he changed my life that day. He saved a lot of money in shampoo and he saved a lot of time in the shower. So that's great though I like that, you know what's a win for you and I think that's a good one, and it can tell by the smiles on your faces and that picture specifically, that you're doing a damn good job. You both are, so kudos to your kiddos. Thank you All right, this is my favorite question, jt. Okay, so I'm going to come out to Texas. Are you in Texas right now?

Speaker 3 47:05

No, actually we recently moved, so we spent 10 years in Houston. We are now in the valley, in Utah, salt Lake Valley, so we live in a city called Alpine. It's tucked right into the mountains there in the valley. Well, you have to update your social media, I guess we do.

Speaker 2 47:23

Yeah, how do you like Utah?

Speaker 3 47:24

That's a good reminder. I didn't even know.

Speaker 2 47:25

How do you like?

Speaker 3 47:25

Utah. Oh, we love it. We've got our two oldest kiddos are going to college up here and we knew that the other children might be following same suit, so we figured we'd move up here and it's been a great change. We do miss warm weather, you know snow shoveling is no fun, but all of the other benefits for us it's been a great move. We're really happy here.

Speaker 2 47:49

Well, you went to school in Utah yourself, didn't you?

Speaker 3 47:53

I did, yeah, so we haven't been back here in 20-plus years, but it's definitely changed. But the mountains, the fresh air, all the stuff, I mean it's great.

Speaker 2 48:04

So, folks, jt went to Brigham Young. He's a BYU Cougar, that's right. And who was the quarterback we discussed when I was doing that Zoom session last year.

Speaker 3 48:17

Steve Young. Yeah, yeah, you were talking about Steve Young.

Speaker 2 48:20

He's got a cool story. He really does and, like I told you, I so wanted to do Tom Brady as an example, but I had to promote Steve Young on that one, just to give you some respect. So anyway.

Speaker 3 48:34

Well, Tom Brady is the GOAT, but the Steve Young story is pretty cool.

Speaker 2 48:37

It's pretty cool, okay, so back to my question. So I'm going to jump in my Jeep today and pull a trailer all the way to Utah and I'm going to bring my time machine. We're both going to get in it and we're going to. I'm going to bring my time machine, we're both going to get in it. We're going to go back to some previous time in your life and you're going to sit down with your younger self on a park bench and you're just going to talk. I'm just going to sit back and listen. What words of wisdom or recipes for success would you share with the younger JT leaderhole?

Speaker 3 49:06

Oh man, oh man, I guess in a nutshell, you and your self-worth, and the frustration, all the things that come along with that, not only financially, but the mental games and stress that plays is so difficult. The reason I bring that particular time of my life up is I was going to, and I've done I don't know how many resumes to different companies, and you know I had this employee mindset of well, for me to be able to be successful I need to find a good firm, and that firm will train me, et cetera. And that's very true. But I wish I would have taken the entrepreneurial leap sooner rather than later. And what brought me to then American Express, now Ameriprise, was what I call my WAMU miracle. So WAMU is an acronym for Washington Mutual. It was a bank that doesn't even exist now that I had set up an interview and was trying to get to.

Speaker 3 50:44

So this was in the days of we didn't have GPS. You print it out from map quest, right, you've been out. From back quest. It highlighted in yellow your route and you read that piece of paper as you went. And so I headed out and my wife decided to tag along. She was just going to wait in the car and we both were following this map and, I kid you not, brian, we could not find this location to save our souls. And, um, this path we were on. I was very excited, uh, to be able to do the interview and, you know, thinking, frustration, the uh, anger as to why, why, why couldn't we do find this simple location?

Speaker 3 51:51

Um, my experience was that that wasn't the path I was supposed to take.

Speaker 3 51:56

So, um, I'll back into that here in a second. But, um, I had a mentor once guide me in, um creating kind of a life statement for myself, and it's in the framing up frameology of be, act, live. And you may be familiar with this, I don't know, but the concept is you need to have a be, an act and a live component of your life statement. So, for me personally, mine is be the man God intended, act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid and then live the life you want now. So, for me, be, act, live is kind of how I, as a litmus test, try to make choices and decisions. So, for me, as I think about that wamu miracle experience of what I perceived as a blockade and absolute, frustrated to the point of losing my cool, but my how god works in mysterious ways. I boldly pursued that path, was kept from what I was pursuing for something better, and thank the Lord, I mean he loves effort, but we need to recognize that the effort doesn't always result in what we can see at that moment.

Speaker 2 53:12

Wow, I love that Be act live. I like threes Strive, love live.

Speaker 3 53:17

Me too yeah.

Speaker 2 53:19

Well, I know I've read this many times that the number three is the number that human beings can relate to the most Like. We remember three more than we remember two or one or seven. If you give them three things to do or three things to think about, we tend to. I don't know why that is and there's a reason for it, but I really like that B-act lip.

Speaker 2 53:35

I was thinking yesterday I wrote my journal because I texted my son and he I always text not always often. I'll text like the little things I don't know what they're called emojis or bitmo, I don't know what they're called Like the little hearts and things like that and the kissy faces. I always do a heart, a prayer sign, and the one of the muscle, the guy flexing or it's just a muscle, and to me I thought to myself, why do I send that a lot to people? And I realized it's because it represents strength, love and faith. And if you can have strength and you can show love and you have faith, pretty much it that's a lot like be act, live.

Speaker 3 54:11

That's powerful, brian.

Speaker 2 54:12

Everybody think about that. What JT just said Be the man I'm going to probably butcher this that God intended you to be. Act boldly. What was the live? How would you say that one?

Speaker 3 54:24

Yeah, act boldly. And what was the live? How would you say that one?

Speaker 2 54:30

Yeah, back boldly, unseen forces will come to your aid and then live the life you want now. Oh, okay, I that last one. I need to think we wait too long.

Speaker 3 54:35

We, we all wait too long Like, uh, when I have the money, or when I've got the experience, or you know when this thing happens then, and I think that too many of us there's this phrase that I just recalled too many of us, we should all over ourselves all the time.

Speaker 2 54:58

That is so true. You're talking to a man who's been writing a book for 15 years and hasn't finished it yet. Here's my excuse.

Speaker 2 55:07

I don't like to type that's the most bass-ackwards thing I've ever heard. I laugh at myself on that one. Dave Dick teases me all the time. He's always when's your book going to be done? I'm like, no, dave, stop it. It's not going to get a book, but I don't know. I like that. So be act, live. You got a lot of things going, brother. You have a lot of things in life. What is next for you?

Speaker 3 55:32

Uh well, you brought up a book. Um, this year I just completed my master's. I finally knocked it off. I'm working on a book, so my books can be focused specifically to the industry that I spend the most time in, you know, entrepreneurs and financial services. But there's so much that I want to say and go through with the coaching clients we work with and there's just never enough time and I figured a book is a great vehicle to facilitate that. So I think there's probably a few good books on me. That's the first one I'm starting with.

Speaker 2 56:07

You just had to show me up, didn't you? No, perfect timing. After I say I've been writing while I'm lazy, I don't want to do it and I don't like to write. No, you're going to get a book done. See, that's what I love about you.

Speaker 3 56:17

You and I'll be that guy and say hey, I started this 15 years ago, so we can hold one another accountable, maybe.

Speaker 2 56:25

How about we? In 15 years, we're both discussing our New York Times bestsellers. I love it, great idea, great idea. Before I ask the last question, I want to go back to balanced approach Because, again, everything I hear about you personally and balanced approach is everything's positive and I like to promote positive to positive people because, in positive teams, companies, because I think what you do, I'm such a fan of coaching. I mean I, you know, I've had Chuck on Wackendorf or Doug Linick. I mean I love Chuck Gay Hendricks. I've had so many amazing people on here over the years. Just had Chuck on while we, we.

Speaker 2 56:59

We shot the episode in December, but I think I released it in january. I just talked to chuck last week actually, and we're talking in in two weeks. Yeah, he likes, yeah, he likes, he thinks the world of you guys as well. But you had said that one of the things you guys focus on are teams that have been success, successful, but they've kind of scaled beyond their own competency. Um, is that, is that kind of what I, and then they lose, kind of scaled beyond their own competency? Is that kind of what I and then they lose, kind of this lack of competence or lack of comfort because they don't really know what to do next. Is that kind of summarize a lot of what you guys your approach or what you guys focus on your niche?

Speaker 3 57:35

Yeah, I think that's a really good way to say it. I mean no disrespect to anybody that's been successful, but I think we rise you've you've heard the peter principle, right, we, we rise to the level of our competence and that's a great moment, if you will to to bring in somebody that's been there or you know can get you there. So for us, you know the, the teams that we work with, that we provide the greatest value to. They're just at a stage where it's a little unnerving or they don't have the experience to go to the next place. So that's how our coaching works.

Speaker 2 58:10

I love that One of my old mentors past mentors he's only five years older than I am used to say to me nothing fails like success, and that stuck with me. It just you know. Like success, and that stuck with me. It just you know. Because I know for me I do something really well and then I start taking it for granted. You know whether that's bringing on new clients into the practice or, obviously, my writing.

Speaker 2 58:35

I think I'm a pretty good writer, I just don't like to write. It's everything that I do, that I do. When I do it well, I tend to start taking it for granted and being very focused and conscious and intentional about getting better at your craft every day and not taking those things for granted is really important. But we all get to a point where we're capped out. We need an expert to come in, like you guys, and say, okay, what? Because you run out of your peripheral vision kind of gets narrower and narrower and narrower, because you get so good at your craft that you really forget now how do I take it to the next level? Because I'm really good at doing the work, but now how do I get in here and work on the business to take it to the next level, and that's where a balanced approach comes in, from my perspective.

Legacy Building and Life Wins

Speaker 3 59:17

Yeah, I think that's a really great way to describe it. I mean, we all, um, we anchor to the things that we've done successfully and there's real value and benefit to that. But as as you need to innovate and you need to adjust and change the culture and environment, you have to do new things, you have to get out of that comfort zone and try, and that really is where I think our team really helps people to get there.

Speaker 2 59:44

Well, everything I hear, you're doing a damn good job of it. Hey, I know you like to read what's a book you're reading now or a book you've recently read that you'd recommend.

Speaker 3 59:53

Well, I'll go back to a couple of favorites that I recommend on a frequent basis, and I'll talk about a new book that I've got on my shelf. The Man's search for meeting is one of my all time favorites. Uh, read it a couple of times. Um, those that haven't read it, it's uh about a psychiatrist that was in Nazi Germany in a camp and his observations of why people succeeded and got to the other side of that and why people didn't make it, why people succeeded and got to the other side of that and why people didn't make it. The other book that I would recommend is one that's called how Will you Measure your Life, and that one really, it's actually based on research of people that were successful or not, and you know what was really meaningful when it was all said and done.

Speaker 3 1:00:48

Um, a recent book that I'm uh just finishing up is the culture code. I'm actually reading it a second time. It's so good. I think there's so many books out there that talk theory. Really well, they talk about, um, things you should do, but but there's no practical application. This Culture Code book by Daniel Coyle, it literally has, like here are the things that you can do, here's the levers you can pull and examples. I always love books that are a little bit more tactical. They take you through, get you in the right mind space and then boom, they're able to pull you through to take some action. It's been a really great book in my mind.

Speaker 2 1:01:28

Well, I can definitely attest to Man's Search for Meaning. I read that book a couple of times. Victor Frankl I just the talent, oh you know what. Okay, when you said the culture code, I thought I'd read that, but I haven't, I just pulled it up. I read the Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.

Speaker 3 1:01:43

Yes, talent Code is fantastic. Yeah, okay, so I'm putting this one in my hold on just a minute here. I'm going to put this in my yeah, the Culture Code is super valuable in my mind, especially for teams, organizations frankly, even families that are looking for. Well, why do we do what we do? What do we need to do differently and how do we create an environment that we want to be a part of? Super, super valuable book.

Speaker 2 1:02:08

Okay, I am right now. I got both of them. How Will you Measure Life? Never been heard of it. I have heard of the Culture Code. I've seen it. I'm going to order. How Will you Measure Life today? I'm going to order it.

Speaker 3 1:02:24

It'll come tomorrow, so have you read the War of Art by Steven Pressfield. No, I've read the Art of War, sun Tzu.

Speaker 2 1:02:34

Yeah, but I haven't read this one you just referenced. No, it's not familiar to me. He wrote it, I'm going to say, 15 years ago and I read it back then, so I have it in storage somewhere. I've got probably 2,000, maybe 1,500 books in storage because I've been traveling so much the last three years two, three years and so I liked it back then. I really liked the book. It didn't have a major impact on my life, but I've been listening.

Speaker 2 1:02:55

You know how you hear about something from multiple sources around you that are disconnected and you go okay, somebody's trying to tell me something here. And so when I, when I started my business 29 years ago this summer, the book that was referenced by so many people back then was Jonathan Livingston Siegel by three or four people referenced it around me, people who weren't even connected to each other and I read the book and that's what propagated me to leave the corporate world and start consulting. Now this, this book again a month ago, I kept hearing it in different podcasts and so I'm like I read that book. So I reordered it anyway and it came when I was in Wisconsin and I reread it, finished it last week and, oh man, it's got good stuff in there. It's so powerful. So Steven Pressfield is a very deep historical fictional author, like he right Gates of Fire. They made the movie 300 based on it about the Spartans. I don't know Back a thousand years ago, 800. I don't know Long time, right, and that book I loved and so I reread. It's a nonfiction on what we go through as we are trying to improve our craft in life, whatever our craft is. He talks about resistances that we face. He talks about the muse, where we get our ideas from, and he's a faith-based man, so he calls his muse as God, but other people might call it angels, they might call it just the universe giving them ideas, and you have to be tapped into that. It's a short read. Some of the chapters are like literally three or four sentences long, maybe 160 pages somewhere in there. I would highly recommend that book. Jt, I loved it. Awesome, I loved it. In fact, it's sitting on my desk right now. Well, as you were talking about it, I literally just dropped it into my audible, so it's next. Oh good, thank you. Yeah, I gotta start doing more audible reading.

Speaker 2 1:04:49

Um, I've been falling asleep at night. Here's something kind of weird about me. I fell asleep for like two years listening to podcasts about bigfoot and sasquatch for some reason, and I've never shared this on on this show and I'm going to cause I'm having a guest come on this year who's an expert on in the field. I had a sighting two years ago of what they call a class a class a sighting at one o'clock in the afternoon on June 11th with about 60 yards away, way back in the woods that I was standing there, 60 yards from something that was about nine feet tall, full of hair, and it looked like a big, huge man and it stared at me. So that's the first time I've ever shared that on this show. So I cause people think you're crazy.

Speaker 2 1:05:34

I wasn't drinking, wasn't on any drugs, just walking a dog on a on a really warm July afternoon by myself, way back in the woods. So I kind of got involved and I was always kind of interested in it. Dawson and I would watch like Bigfoot documentaries when he was little, just because it was just a. It was a curiosity thing, you know, but never thought about it Anyway. So I was falling asleep to listening to podcasts but then Jackie finally said about three weeks ago you got to stop doing that. The podcasts are still going at four in the morning. Three weeks ago you got to stop doing that. The podcasts are still going at four in the morning, so I got into it. So I've been. I recently just on Audible, did we call it Genghis Khan, but it's actually his name, is Genghis Khan. It's the story of Genghis Khan, and I've been, because on Audible you can set your timer for like 30 minutes or 45 minutes and the book shuts down. So I have been going back to Audible a little bit for that reason.

Speaker 2 1:06:27

But anyway, thank you for the book recommendations. Everybody. I'm going to read these off. You mentioned Atomic Habits earlier and you mentioned Seven Habits of Highly Effective People two fantastic books. So Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, how Will you Measure your Life, and then the Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. Those are five great books right there. Then I'm going to throw the sixth one in there, which is the War of Art by Steven Pressfield. So I'd recommend, if somebody's looking to change your life, order one of those books right now. Get it on Audible, get it on Amazon, go to a bookstore and just read five pages a day. Your life will change. All right, brother, as we wrap up here so much good stuff, so much wisdom that you shared. I have one final question, and that question is is there any question that I didn't ask, that you wish I would have?

Speaker 3 1:07:17

Or is there any final message you want to leave with the bamboo pack out there? I guess the final message has to do with Bigfoot. This sounds crazy, but I think that the things, the codes, the teachings, the information we've had and the perpetuation of that information, I think, when it's all said and done, we're going to be very, very surprised at what we thought was true versus what we thought was impossible. You know, as I think, as I go back to my elementary years and what they taught us about the universe, um, and the scope of it. And now my kids come home and their understanding of um, the, the fact that there are trillions and maybe uncountable number of worlds and stars, I mean the understanding and awakening that we are experiencing as a society and as humans, is just absolutely amazing.

Speaker 3 1:08:20

I would my final message, if you will, on our conversation today is can you take that recognition of those things and internalize and realize of the capacity and ability that each member, each one of us, has? You know the trillions of potential versions of ourselves and the fact that we are the ones that are likely impeding. We're the ones that, because of our own, uh, disbelief in what we can be and who we can become and who we can influence. We're really the ones that are stopping us. There's no external force, and I just think about this awakening that we're continuing to have and the fact that, if you don't believe in bigfoot, you might find, when it's all said and done, that uh been around for a long time.

Speaker 3 1:09:13

Um, I couldn't even fathom that there were other uh planets that potentially could be inhabitable in the future. Um, when I was, you know, a younger child. I can only imagine, over the next 10 years, what we're going to discover. Take that and focus it on yourself. What can you self-discover about who you are and who you can become? To me, it's just so fascinating to think about that.

Speaker 2 1:09:37

Hi, that's what a powerful way to end this conversation. If you, I mean you did hit the nail on the head and I, you know, you hear on the podcast that I listened to, whether it's, uh, you know, rogan, or um, huberman, um, you know, you hear all these guests. They bring on things to discuss. That you're just blows my mind.

Speaker 3 1:09:56

It's amazing, right it's crazy.

Speaker 2 1:09:58

I mean the thing. I mean what did we just?

Speaker 3 1:10:09

what this last couple of months? We actually brought dire wolves back to life. Do you see that? I did see that crazy, and you know some people say it's a hope, some people don't. I mean, we've got quantum computing, where we have atoms that are making uh, there's so much stuff out there.

Speaker 2 1:10:15

It's just our world and our universe is fascinating to me but what you did that I hadn't thought of is how do we take that stuff that we never knew possible? Now, how do we apply that to ourselves, to think of all the things that we think are impossible, that we could never do, or things we've never even considered doing or becoming as a man or a woman? I mean it's crazy. Somebody said to me the other day there were a couple weeks ago it was a client he had listened to, I think it less brown, uh back in the day, and he would start his his lectures off by saying okay, everybody write down five things that you know on a piece of paper. And they'd write down five things and he'd say okay, everybody write down all the things you don't know. Everybody look at them and they don't know what to write. He goes that's the message you, because you don't know what you don't know. And that's exactly what I just said, brother. All right, brother, you're something else and I was excited to have you on and you got to break in my new office space and my new desk and chair.

Speaker 2 1:11:14

This is the first podcast I've done on my new desk and chair and it worked out well. The dog didn't bark once. I hope it's not too echoey in here, but anyway, I appreciate you man, I really do. You guys are doing some great things at Balance Approach and I hope you guys just continue to thrive, because the world needs it. There are so many people and teams out there within the financial world, outside the financial world, entrepreneurial people, who need what you guys offer. So keep doing what you're doing.

Speaker 3 1:11:39

Thanks so much, Brian. I think the world of you and really appreciate the opportunity to chat today. I appreciate you too.

Speaker 2 1:11:44

Hey everybody, thank you for tuning in this week. I want to ask you, please do a couple of things. Hit the like button, give us a review, rate us, review us Good or bad man, let me know what you're thinking of us and this episode here. Share it with five people. There was so much He'd go beyond that and he did so. Please share this with three to five people that you care about. Check out Balanced Approach Consulting. I'll leave a link on the bottom of the show notes here today. I'll see you all next week, or at least you'll hear me next week. I'll be in tune with you all next week. Same time, same place. In the meantime, please get out.